My usual unreasonable self-criticism

Day 26 and I find myself second-guessing. The last few days I've posted lighter poems, rhyming and playful--and I'm asking myself, where's some depth? Where's some insightful epiphany that illuminates some  corner of the world? Jeez. I do get tired of being on the wrong side no matter what side I'm on.

Getting to be a slog...

...though not in a bad way, if I can say that. It's not only that my verse seems barren of new pride, and that I'm saying to myself, "Also not a poem!" but also that I'm saying "So what?" Apparently, so are others in my cohort. They're feeling drained. A lot of the posts on the web site are about having nothing to say. Oh, I hear you. (Go to  https://www.tupelopress.org/the-3030-project/ if you want to see what I mean.) People are digging deep, into old matters, casting wide to snag something out of their day-to-day, even flailing a bit (who, me?). Though yesterday I did write quite a lengthy poem about strategies writers use to call up inspiration. Shannon Winward, are you listening???? Meta enough for ya?

As in this photo, where you glimpse the promised golden land, I do believe I will get there.

I'm writing 30 poems in 30 days!

Peaches the writing cat (also polydactyl)

What on earth is a German major-turned-psychologist doing working seriously at writing poetry? Especially with what my life is like right now, with realistic fears about my husband, to commit to writing a poem a day for an entire month, thirty poems in thirty days. Some are better than others (!), some are drafts with possibilities, some are tickled with thunder, and some are pretty strange. You’re not wrong:  it is a wild time and a crazy decision, but something about it seemed like the thing I needed to do right now.

Now I’m over 60% through the month, and so far I have missed only one day. (My husband was in the ER the night before, so there was no sleep until the next day when he got home. Writing simply was not in it.) Otherwise, I have produced a poem every day. The experience has been weirdly freeing, since I don’t feel obliged to come up with a good poem, or even a poem I think someone else might like to read. All I gotta do is keep writing them down. I am realizing that I probably could keep writing much more if I weren’t pre-judging. Among other things, it makes me wonder what constitutes a real poem. 
http://cloudslikemountains.blogspot.com/2014/08/its-real-poem.html?showComment=1411446737844#c7310707965324255828

If you want to see what I have come up with each day, check out this web page. Just scroll down through each day to see what I, and the other October poets, have produced. https://www.tupelopress.org/the-3030-project/

 Another reason to check the poems out is that Tupelo Press, like all creative writing publishers, needs money to keep running. All the editors work for love alone. I’ve never hit anyone up for a walk-a-thon, or a human rights campaign, or a cure-disease-X drive (not even my own). Supporting poetry, though—on that one I can reach out. If you feel so moved, you might click on this URL  https://tupelopress.networkforgood.com/projects/59373-tupelo-30-31-karen-s-poem-a-day , which is my very own fundraiser page, and pop in $5 or so. It all adds up. If you don’t care to donate, no worries.

 That’s the deal. Now it’s up to you.